MASTER-SLAVE LOCAL OSCILLATOR PORTING BETWEEN RADIO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
First Claim
1. A radio integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
- at least one transmitter configured to transmit a signal;
at least one receiver configured to receive a signal;
a local oscillator signal source configured to generate a local oscillator signal for use in radio transmission or radio reception; and
a port circuit configured to couple the local oscillator signal to another radio IC for use by the other radio IC in radio transmission or radio reception.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A technique to share a local oscillator signal between two radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). The local oscillator signal generated internally by one RFIC is ported to the other RFIC for use in transmit or receive operation. The local oscillator signal that is ported may be an RF local oscillator signal. Each RFIC may include a bi-directional port circuit that can be operated to make the RFIC a master, slave or may be totally disabled to disable the porting feature. This is particularly useful in RFICs that are used to communicate using MIMO radio algorithms which rely for optimum performance on phase and frequency coherency among a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A radio integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
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at least one transmitter configured to transmit a signal; at least one receiver configured to receive a signal; a local oscillator signal source configured to generate a local oscillator signal for use in radio transmission or radio reception; and a port circuit configured to couple the local oscillator signal to another radio IC for use by the other radio IC in radio transmission or radio reception. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A radio integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
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at least one transmitter configured to transmit a signal; at least one receiver configured to receive a signal; and a port circuit configured to receive a local oscillator signal from another radio IC for use in radio transmission or radio reception. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A radio communication device comprising:
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a first radio integrated circuit (IC) configured to perform one or both of radio transmission or radio reception; and a second radio IC configured to perform one or both of radio transmission or radio reception; wherein the first radio IC is configured to generate and use a local oscillator signal for radio transmission or radio reception operation, and wherein the local oscillator signal is coupled to the second radio IC for use in radio transmission or radio reception operation by the second radio IC, and wherein the first and second radio ICs each comprises a bi-directional port circuit, the bi-directional port circuit in the first radio IC is configured to couple the local oscillator signal to the bi-directional port circuit of the second radio IC, and the bi-directional port circuit in the second radio IC is configured to couple the local oscillator signal from the first radio IC for use in radio transmission or radio reception by the second radio IC. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification